Wake up call was 7am to the sound of 3 guys running an auger drilling post holes… right… outside… my trailer window. Hundreds of feet of grass and dirt in every direction… but apparently… 10 feet in front of my window was the single, number one BEST place to fire up that auger at 7am. Cool.

10am: So what do you do when you’re teaching a JA program and a stray dog walks in? Nothing. That’s not really strange up here. Nor is it strange to see abandoned bicycles lying in the middle of the road. Neither is the herd of stray horses roaming the community. (apparently it’s also not strange for me to lock myself in my bedroom which I did. How it locked from the outside I have no idea. Javier to the rescue.)

10:30am: What is strange? How about me being stopped in a hallway in the community center by a BIG burly kid who says: “HEY… who are you? I never seen you here before. What are you doing here?”. Hmmmm. Turns out that “Leroy” is a curious guy and doesn’t see too many strangers in his town and a grey haired guy in shorts and running shoes is just a bit out of place. I indulge him…

I soon find out I am not the only fish of water. It also turns out that Leroy is a bit out of place himself. He is making history for himself and his community.

Leroy just returned from school… and that school is St. Mary’s University in Halifax… where he plays football and is a linebacker for the St. Mary’s Huskys… the number one ranked university team in Atlantic Canada. This is him: http://www.smu.ca/athletics/images/fontaineleroy.jpg

Leroy is a bit out of place. Some folks call Janvier the second most dangerous first nations reserve in Alberta and Leroy… if he hadn’t taken the path in life he did… could have become the most dangerous guy here.

Instead… this massive guy with a tattoo creeping up his neck is probably one of Janvier’s first ever university students (studying criminology of all things) and without a doubt one of a very few First Nations youth playing university football in Canada.

Leroy, with his new Jeep wrangler and bulging muscles, is also quite the distraction among many of the females in our program.

I found him to be an articulate, smart and engaging young person with a dream to play in the CFL. I also found him to be an incredible inspiration. He knows he is a role model in this community… and he came back for the summer to be a youth worker. To give back. To be the change. For Leroy… football was his way out… but here he is… back on the res to help others find their way UP. Something tells me I am going to meet him again sometime.

11am: I am holding court. I am in my element. I love it… we are building the business plan for the Dene Cinema and I am talking about the secrets to marketing, and business operations.

My audience? 5 young women… aged 17-25… most are young mothers. Two of them are new VP’s of the company and the other three are the assistants. We are sitting around a small table in the dining area talking about advertising and promotions.

In one of my favorite memories of the day… I watch them as they lean in, listening to me and each-other… talking… offering ideas. This is all so new, exciting and scary to them.

They are going to flyer the community, put up posters and talk on the local tiny radio station about the upcoming movie night next Friday. They understand the value of word of mouth. After all… that’s how you find out about all the parties going on around her. Trust me… marketing is in good hands… these ladies will get the word out.

I am asked what else they can do to promote the event. My suggestion of duct taping posters to the sides of the stray horses who roam the town draws a couple rounds of laughter. This is an important moment. They are engaged. That is until Leroy walks into the room for a cup of coffee. Poof. All focus is lost and all eyes are on him. “Ladies please” I plead… “can we focus…?” more laughs…

We soon put the finishing touches on the marketing and operations part of the business plan and break for lunch.

1pm: We are supposed to start at 12:30 but most students come back late. This is common. They learn on their own pace…

The President is getting ansty. Quentin… or “Jugghead” as he locally known… starts pacing the halls looking for the rest of his team.

Quentin is the alpha male of the group. Born and raised in Janvier, his dream is to start a fishing and hunting tour operation serving all the hundreds of rig guys who work in the area and stay in camps. The land is in his blood…literally. He takes pride in the local lakes and land and talks of the traditional ways and how he wants to show others his people’s ways. He is a husband, and a father with a dream of making a better life for his family and community. I talk fishing with him a lot. I love to fish and this area has two of the single best pike lakes just a two hour quad ride away. I hope I can be his first customer.

“Lets go people!” he screams down the hall. One by one the team comes in the room. The leader has spoken.

All the VP’s have to present their plans to the rest of the team. Easy for some, not so much for others. The shyest of the group gets up to talk. The room falls silent as she quietly reads her plan word for word… not looking up once. No eye contact with anyone. Her courage is rewarded by the applause of her teammates. Victory.

One by one they all get up… and present their plans. They debate price… and how much pop and chips to buy to sell at the movie night. They talk about the technology they need… and how they will organize their records and cash. By the end… this group has written their very first business plan. Victory again!

Javier does a masterful job of explaining how to stand out in business. He comes from Mexico City - a city of 24 million. If he had an idea… there were probably one million people with the same idea. In Janvier there are only 600 people. “You have already stood out here” he says. “You are making history right now by starting the first movie theatre in Janvier… ever”. There are many many theatres in Mexico city! Yours will be the only one in Janvier.” “You are leaders already”. The message hits home.

2:30pm: Not everyone is engaged. Of the group of 17-20 (depending time of day) there are about 6 who are simply sitting at the back, texting on their phones, talking to eachother or zoning out.

The President takes notice… Qunetin rises. “If you don’t want to participate… get out.” Hey says in a nice confident tone. “Some of us want to be here… for the rest of you…if you don’t want to be part of the team… you can leave”. The room falls silent. No-one leaves… but the cell phones disappear.

I sense his frustration and invite him and his 5 VP’s (all women I might add) into another room so they can all talk alone.

Once we get them alone, Javier and I lead them through a sharing circle of how proud we are of them about how much they accomplished. We talk about how they all are leading by example and how they are now business owners. Smiles all around. They stand in a close circle…one by one they speak.

Quentin says how proud he is of all of them… and then follows it with “I am even proud of myself” complete with his trademark nervous laugh.

This is a good bonding moment for them and some validation for Javier and I. They get it… they know how much work lies ahead… and they want it.

It has been a long day…and the President make his first executive decision… as a reward for a job well done… he gives them the rest of the day off. Good move.

4:30pm: We get in Derek’s ( the program coordinator) truck and we head to the town of Conklin for dinner. “The buffets starts at 5 so lets get going” he says. I love a good buffet. 40kms up the highway we arrive at a truck stop with about 10-15 atco trailers joined together to make a bar and restaurant. I ask Derek were the town is. This IS the town he says.

We get our food and sit down to talk and eat. This guy Derek is quite simply one of the most interesting people I have met in long long time.

This guy is 32 years old. He owns a number of businesses in the Hobbema and Westaskiwan area. He moved his wife and two year old daughter to Janvier to start the Change it Up program and run it for 14 months.

He has become a big brother and mentor to so many of the young people in the program. He and his wife are so much a part of this success… JA could not work here without the groundwork and capacity building they did before we arrived.

Javier and I are now starting to get a very clear picture of how JA can make an impact in the lives of First Nations youth.

It cant be just JA… we need to be part of a bigger vision and partnership.

More tomorrow!